A special event in Cambridge on Tuesday (November 8) will explore how some of the city’s researchers are tackling diabetes.

More than 3.5 million people in the UK have either Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes, a lifelong condition that causes a person’s blood sugar level to become too high.

With fears growing of the human and financial cost of the disease, the free SciBar event from 7pm will reveal how advances in science may relieve the pressure on health services and help those affected.

Taking place at the Novi Espresso and Cocktail Bar on Regent Street, the event is hosted jointly by Cambridge British Science Association, Cambridge University Health Partners and the Cambridge University , to mark World Diabetes Day.

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Dr Frank Waldron-Lynch, senior clinical trials fellow and academic consultant division of Experimental Medicine & Immunotherapeutics at Cambridge University, is one of two speakers who will be giving talks about their work.

He will discuss how type 1 diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases diagnosed in children and young adults – in fact it can be diagnosed at any age from babies to the elderly.

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“Type 1 diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases in children and there has been a rapid increase in the number affected each year,” he said.

“About 40,000 people are affected in the UK, and 29,000 of those are children. What we’re trying to do is to develop a new treatment that would reduce the amount of times people have to inject insulin daily.

“With type 1 diabetes, your body’s immune system destroys its ability to produce insulin. If we can develop a treatment that restores the health of your immune system and prevents it from destroying the insulin producing cells of the pancreas, then you shouldn’t need as many injections.

“Maybe one or two injections compared to four or maybe you won’t require to be connected constantly to an insulin pump.

“Our work is at an early stage, however if it continues to be successful the new treatment would be a significant advance on the current treatment available and it would have significant benefits for patients in terms of their lifestyle, and the fact they would have more freedom and wouldn’t require constant monitoring of their blood sugar levels and injections of insulin every time they eat food.”

Dr Nita Forouhi, who leads a programme of research at the MRC Epidemiology Unit at Cambridge University that aims to understand the association between diet and the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes and related disorders, is also speaking at the event.

For details and to book tickets, visit cambridgescibar.eventbrite.co.uk.